In the wee small hours of the morning the tragic figure of
Janet
Dalrymple haunts the ruins of her death place. Her nightgown
splashed
in her bridegroom’s blood, she wanders the ancient castle, perhaps
reliving
the path to her insanity and trapped within its horror.

Janet had loved the penniless Archibald, third Lord
Rutherford though
her parents forbade a union. Forced by duty to her parents to
marry
David Dunbar, the heir to Sir David Dunbar of Baldoon, she acquiesced
in
a ceremony at Carsecleugh Castle, her family home.

The honeymoon couple didn't quite hit it off, though there
are rumors
of what actually happened that night the facts are that the door was
broken
down by relatives when hearing screams from the bridal chamber.
Inside,
they found Dunbar lying on the floor, blood streaming from his body
from
stab wounds and Janet huddled in a chimney corner. Her bedclothes
had been drenched in blood and her mind tortured with madness.
Did
she stab her husband when he had forced his “rights as husband”?
Did the lovelorn Archibald attack Dunbar after hiding in the
shadows?
Or is it possible that local tradition is correct when saying the Devil
had stabbed Dunbar and drove Janet to insanity?

While Dunbar recovered from his wounds, Janet did not
escape the
shock of the night. She died shortly afterwards on September
12th,
1669. Dunbar refused to discuss the nights tragedy so we are left
with a mystery and madness to walk the silent ruins of Baldoon Castle
on
soft summer nights.